Time Inc. to Host Global Forum Featuring Pope Francis

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Time Inc. to Host Global Forum Featuring Pope Francis

TIME Staff

Sept. 6, 2016

Pope Francis at the Vatican, Sept. 3, 2016.

Stefano Rellandini—Reuters Pope Francis at the Vatican, Sept. 3, 2016.

The December event will culminate in a special address at the Vatican

Time Inc. will host a forum in Rome on the global economy, culminating in a special address by Pope Francis at the Vatican, the company announced Tuesday.

The 2016 Fortune/Time Global Forum—the first of its kind— will take place Dec. 2 and 3 and aims to bring together Fortune 500 CEOs, members of the TIME 100 most influential people and other academic, religious and business leaders to discuss international economic issues, including creating jobs, eliminating poverty, solving the refugee crisis and broadening prosperity.

Pope Francis has regularly spoken out about global economic issues, raising concerns about the growing wealth gap and criticizing the “dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

“Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy,” he said in a speech in Bolivia last year. “It is a moral obligation.”

The Fortune/Time forum will be led by Time Inc. Chief Content Officer and Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alan Murray and Time Inc. News Group Editorial Director and Time Editor-in-Chief Nancy Gibbs. The official host committee for the forum includes the leaders of IBM and PepsiCo as well as the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, among others.